In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces. Their neighbours' house was hit and Verhoeven's parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. From this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an exciting adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory (1987).[2]

His father Wim Verhoeven became head teacher on the Van Heutszschool in The Hague and Paul Verhoeven attended this school. Sometimes they watched informative films at home with the school's film projector. Paul Verhoeven and his father also liked to see American films, that were in the cinema after the liberation, such as The Crimson Pirate (1952). They went as many as ten times to see The War of the Worlds (1953). Paul Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos, where the character Dick Bos is a private detective who fights crime using Jujutsu. Verhoeven himself liked comic drawing and created The Killer, a grey character in a detailed story full of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series.[2]

First films and TV series

Screenshot from A Lizzard Too Much (1960)

Verhoeven made his first film A Lizzard Too Much for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960.[5] In his last years at university he also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy. After this he made three more short films Nothing Special (1961), De Lifters (1962) and Let's Have a Party (1963).

Verhoeven received a doctorandus degree in math and physics from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He never used his degree, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film. After his studies he entered the Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary "Het Korps Mariniers" (The Royal Dutch Marine Corps 1965) about the Navy, which won the French Golden Sun award for military films.[2]

In 1967 he married Martine Tours, with whom he later had two daughters: Claudia (1972) and Helen (1974).

When he left the Navy, he took his skills into Dutch television. First he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.

Verhoeven built on his reputation and had an international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier of Orange.[6] The film is based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Soldier of Orange received the 1979 LA Film Critics Award for best foreign language film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980.

Verhoeven followed those successes with the non-S.F., but equally intense and provocative, Basic Instinct (1992). The 9th-highest grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to the themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she doesn't wear underwear underneath her skirt. The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.[7]

Then he made the poorly received NC-17 rated film Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to have a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Raspberry Awards including the ones for worst film and for worst director. Paul Verhoeven was the first director to accept the award in person. Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals [8] and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.[9]

After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence, and special-effects that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), based on the noted and controversial science-fiction novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, and Hollow Man (2000). Both films received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Return to the Netherlands

After about 20 years of working and living in the United States Paul Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman he made Black Book (2006). The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero".[10]Black Book eventually won 3 Golden Calves at this festival, including one for Paul Verhoeven as Best Director.[11] When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there were speculations about a new production. The film Beast of Bataan had been announced, but when the shooting for Black Book resumed, the film was never realized.

Frequent collaborators

Verhoeven is unusually loyal in terms of his crew. Before Black Book he had only used two cinematographers over the course of his professional film career: Jost Vacano and Jan de Bont. He worked with the same writer (Gerard Soeteman) for all of his major Dutch films, and his American films (excluding Showgirls but including Flesh and Blood) have been scored exclusively by Basil Poledouris and Jerry Goldsmith. Alan Marshall has produced Paul's last four films.

Jost Vacano, a good friend of Paul's, has worked as the cinematographer on seven of his films, including many of the American ones. The first movie they did together was Soldier of Orange in 1977.

Jerry Goldsmith wrote the scores for Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Hollow Man. He has said that he considers Total Recall one of the best movie scores he's written.

Other activities

Paul Verhoeven is a member of the Jesus Seminar.[12] He is the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies,[13] although he graduated in mathematics and physics at the University of Leiden.[14][15] Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims.[16] On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatologicalprophet.[17]

In 2007 Verhoeven authored the book Jesus of Nazareth (Dutch: Jezus van Nazaret) about the life of Jesus of Nazareth.[18] The book reviews the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth and the alleged corruption of these same ideas over the last 2,000 years. The book may be a preparation for Jesus: The Man, a controversial film project about the life of Jesus.[13] Verhoeven's book tells about the Jewish uprising against Roman rule and characterizes Jesus as terrorist. He rejects all supernatural happenings and miracles as unproved or unprovable. Marianna Sterk of the publishing house J.M. Meulenhoff said "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait," has been released in September 2008 in Dutch and will be published in English in April 2010 by Seven Stories Press.[19]

^ For example, The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson (SF: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) criticizes the Jesus Seminar's methods on exegetical grounds, and also criticizes what he perceives to be a dependence on the theatrical and an attempt to manipulate the mainstream media. He singles out Verhoeven as a key player in the media activities of the Jesus Seminar on pp. 15–16 of this book.